Woman Knits With Glass to Create Art

For all of those who are dexterously challenged (not good with your hands), then knitting itself can already seem like a nightmare. Instead of knitting with yarn, how about giving it a go and knit with glass?

Carol Milne Knits with Glass

Carol Milne does the impossible and knits with glass. Okay, she actually recreates the art of knitting using glass. Sound a little less impossible? We didn’t think so either. Just how do you knit with something that has a melting point of 815°C and form it into the thin threads of yarn knotted together onto a knitting needle?

Milne derived a method in 2006 that does just that.

Milne’s Secret Method

From what we know, Carol first creates a model of her sculpture out of wax. We’d assume that she also has a pre-knit example of her sculpture otherwise she’s really got talent being able to carve out the details into wax free-hand.

Next she encases the wax mold into a material that can withstand the temperature required to melt the wax. Afterwards, Carol uses hot steam to melt the wax so that a cavity in the shape of the knitted artwork is left behind.

She then injects room temperature glass into the mold and heats the entire contraption from 760-870°C respective to the type of glass that she uses. The glass itself is then slowly cooled over the time span of a couple of weeks to allow all of the details to completely form during the cooling process.

The final artwork is then slowly exposed as Carol carefully chips away at the mold to reveal the glass. And that precisely is how Carol Milne knits with glass.